Ex-Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies and Iceland boss Richard Walker among new peers
Olympic medal-winning swimmer and campaigner Sharron Davies has been named as one of three new Conservative colleagues.
Ms Davies, a vocal critic of trans women in women’s sport, was nominated by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.
The Conservative Party said this was due to her sporting achievements and campaigning for women’s rights.
Icelandic supermarket chief Richard Walker and former Number 10 communications director Matthew Doyle are among 25 new Labor members nominated by Sir Keir Starmer. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey nominated five new members.
Ms Davies will sit alongside former Tory cabinet minister John Redwood and journalist and historian Simon Heffer.
He has become an outspoken campaigner against transgender athletes being allowed into the gym. Women’s competitions with the aim of “protecting women’s sports”.
The swimmer, who won a silver medal and two Commonwealth gold medals at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, denied his comments were transphobic and claimed he had spoken to many female athletes who “feel like me”.
After his candidacy, Mrs Davies said it would. “It is exciting to continue fighting for women’s rights and the protection of women’s rights, as well as to ensure that as many children as possible participate in sports, especially sports.”
Meanwhile, a Labor spokesman said the new 25 MPs would allow the government to “deliver on the mandate we received from the British people” and “correct” the imbalance vis-à-vis Labor in the House of Lords, where the Conservatives are currently more represented.
Despite having a majority in the House of Commons, Labor is currently outnumbered in the House of Lords; It has 209 MPs compared to the Conservative Party’s 282.
Mr Walker’s candidacy confirmed reports earlier in the week Labor Party sources describe him as “a determined advocate for families struggling with the costs of living”.
The 45-year-old actor left the Conservative Party in 2023 and was later seen at the launch of Labour’s manifesto for the 2024 general election.
In February this year, he gave the new government a score of “six out of 10” in a comment to the Financial Times, criticizing the government’s increase in employer national insurance contributions but praising its attempts to improve relations with the EU.
A Labor spokesman said: “The Conservatives have packed the House of Lords and created a serious imbalance, allowing them to defeat our plans to make working families better off.
“We will continue to advance our program of reform, which includes removing the right of our hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords.”
Labor is in the process of removing the 92 seats reserved for hereditary peers who receive their titles through their families.
Sir Keir Starmer has previously favored abolishing the House of Lords and replacing it with an elected Assembly of Nations and Territories, but has not put forward deeper reforms before the next election.
Labor Party election manifest Reform of the House of Lords has been called “long overdue” and “necessary” because the chamber is too large and many peers have failed to serve democracy.
His new Labor colleagues include Mr Doyle, a veteran of Tony Blair’s government who resigned in March after nine months running the press operation at Downing Street.
Rachel Reeves’ former chief of staff, Katie Martin, was also promoted.
Labor has nominated several senior London-based political figures, including London Assembly leader Len Duvall, Lewisham Mayor Brenda Dacres and former Southwark Council leader Peter John.
The Liberal Democrats nominated Lord Addington and Earl Russell, both hereditary peers, allowing them to remain in the House of Lords after those seats were abolished.
The Earl of Kinnoull, a deputy speaker of the House of Lords, was also given the right to remain an independent crossbencher.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said his party had appointed members who would work to “deliver the change our country urgently needs, including reform of the House of Lords”.
They include former Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, who served as children’s minister between 2010 and 2012, and Rhiannon Leaman, who has been Sir Ed’s private secretary since 2019.
No other parties accepted new spouses.
Reform England leader Nigel Farage wrote to the prime minister in the summer to demand that his party, which has five MPs and one Lord but regularly leads national polls, “should have some representation in the House of Lords”.
Most Lords are entitled to a daily allowance of £371 for each day of sitting they attend; but they may choose not to request it.
Like MPs, they examine the government’s work and recommend changes to proposed legislation. But unlike MPs, peers are not elected.
